Grace Lennox - Chance

BOLD STROKES BOOKS

e-Books

CHANCE

What Reviewers Say About The Author

Fulton has rescued the romance from formulaic complacency by asking universal questions about friendship and love, intimacy and lust. The answers re ect both depth and maturity; this is the romance novel grown up a bit. Girl gets girl is always popular; more inspirational is when the girl gets to know herself. The Lesbian Review of Books

Fulton takes an age old formula for love and plants it in modern surroundings. The writing is smart and quick, and she portrays innocence with loving, irresistible humor. She delivers esh-warming, ush-inducing seduction and pages of slippery, richly textured sex.

Her knack for depicting current social dilemmas also makes her a compelling contemporary author. The Lesbian Review of Books

Fulton has penned another wonderfully readable, erotically-charged bookfun, and well worth your time. Lambda Book Report

Fulton tells a dark and disturbing tale of friendship and betrayal, of love lost before it has a chance to begin. That may sound rather hackneyed but her use of these themes is anything but trite. The writing is outstandingFulton creates characters that live on in the memory and in the heartAn extraordinary novel. I could not put it down and days later, Im still thinking about it. Bay Area Reporter

Perhaps needless to say, the paths the friendships take are fraught with, among other things, lust, unrequited love, in delity and dishonesty.

Good intentions are trampled in the pursuit of passion. Problems, both past and present, shape the relationships the women share.The writing is sharpa realistic account of contemporary urban lesbian life. Melbourne Star Observer

The ending left me grinning to myself for hours and wishing for an immediately available sequel One of the best writers on the roster.

Her books are always entertaining and often thought provoking.

Dimensions

Im not sure why I found the book so completely erotic. The author knows how to tease and how to deliver. Lesbiana

One of those books that is hard to put down until you nish it

Whether youre in the perfect relationship or still looking for it, youll enjoy this story. MegaScene

CHANCE

by

Jennifer Fulton writing as

GRACE LENNOX

2006

CHANCE

2006 BY GRACE LENNOX. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

ISBN 1-933110-31-7

THIS TRADE PAPERBACK ORIGINAL IS PUBLISHED BY

BOLD STROKES BOOKS, INC.,

PENNSYLVANIA, USA

FIRST PRINTING: BOLD STROKES BOOKS 2006

THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION. NAMES, CHARACTERS, PLACES, AND

INCIDENTS ARE THE PRODUCT OF THE AUTHORS IMAGINATION OR

ARE USED FICTITIOUSLY. ANY RESEMBLANCE TO ACTUAL PERSONS, LIVING OR DEAD, BUSINESS ESTABLISHMENTS, EVENTS, OR LOCALES

IS ENTIRELY COINCIDENTAL.

THIS BOOK, OR PARTS THEREOF, MAY NOT BE REPRODUCED IN ANY

FORM WITHOUT PERMISSION.

CREDITS

EDITOR: STACIA SEAMAN

PRODUCTION DESIGN: STACIA SEAMAN

COVER DESIGN BY SHERI (GRAPHICARTIST2020@HOTMAIL.COM) By the Author

MYSTERIES as Rose Beecham

Amanda Valentine Series

Jude Devine Series

Introducing Amanda Valentine

Grave Silence

Second Guess

Fair Play

ROMANCES as Jennifer Fulton

Moon Island Series

Heartstoppers Series

A Guarded Heart

Dark Dreamer

Passion Bay

Saving Grace

Others

The Sacred Shore

Greener Than Grass

True Love

Acknowledgments

I could not do the job I love without the support and encouragement of my long-suffering family and friends, especially my partner, Fel. My daughter Sophie provided invaluable information and insight as I wrote this story, and Stacia Seaman, as always, edited with care and precision.

Finally, I thank Radclyffe for her writerly insights and her friendship, and for making this business fun.

Dedication

For Sophie.

Beloved daughter, you are the best thing I ever did.

CHANCE

CHAPTER ONE

When I was ten, a fortune-teller read my palm. Actually, it was my Aunt Shirley. She went through a clairvoyant phase before she became an evangelical Christian. Nowadays, she attributes her crystal ball predictions to Satan, probably because most of them came true. For example, my parents got a divorce when I was thirteen, just like Aunt Shirley said. A year later my father, who was certainly enslaved by the devil during his male menopause, married a former Miss California. They kept her sash, crown, and stilettos enshrined in a revolving glass showcase in their living room.

The divorce was how Mom and I ended up living with my grandparents in a small Northern California town called Eureka.

There, in the hills, Mom sold real estate to San Francisco executives who wanted to live an alternative lifestyle, while I spent each summer vacation chasing girls who would not have me.

Eventually, when I was twenty, Dad came to his senses and divorced the beauty queen and he and Mom got back together after going to Hawaii on a tantric retreat. The divorce settlement left the beauty queen in possession of our house and Dad poor, but Mom didnt care. She was a big success by then, thanks to her copious real estate development deals in Silicon Valley. These days my parents run a meditation and enrichment center in Sausalito called Beyond Limits, which, according to my best friend, Suzie Weissmuller, is what happens to your credit card when you go there.

As well as predicting family crises, my Aunt Shirley told me I was destined to encounter true love amidst depravity and loud music. I spent years hanging out at dances and clubs hoping for the Big Moment, and

Grace Lennox

to tell you the truth, I had just gotten to thinking it would never happen when I found myself sinking Buds with Suzie in the Lexington one September evening andgasp! There she was.

Short dark hair. 501s. Black turtleneck. Leather jacket. She owned the room the moment she set foot in the door. Everyone stared. She seemed oblivious.

Wow, I choked. Check it out.

Suzie glanced up from her drink. Where?

The divine stranger sauntered to the bar like she had a patent on the satisfaction gene. One tiny thick gold earring clung to her left earlobe.

I imagined she smelled of salt air and gasoline, fresh from cruising the city in a hot convertible.

Omigod, shes looking at us. I was ready to take a dive off the Golden Gate Bridge if she offered to watch.

Get a hold of yourself, Suzie said and waved at the goddess.

I nearly ate my beer glass. You know her?

She was coming toward us, one thumb tucked in her hip pocket.

I had never seen anything so sexy. I prayed she was not another one of Suzies exes.

Suzie got up and planted a kiss right on the strangers mouth. I could feel the room receding as if everyone and everything in it had been swallowed by fog. A pair of arresting midnight blue eyes found mine. I stood up. My chair overbalanced and hit the oor.

Chance Suzie said, meet Eric.

Eric? I nearly whimpered. No. It could not be true.

Chance was kind of hoping you were a girl, Suzie explained.

So was my mother. The voice was bedroom pitched.

I picked up my chair and sat down again, all set to weep into my beer. Do you make a habit of drinking in lesbian bars? I asked the sex-goddess impersonator.